This invention relates generally to egg trays and in particular to denestable plastic egg trays adapted for removal of the tray from a stack of similar trays.
Egg trays of various designs are known in the art and generally include a plurality of rows of pockets in which the eggs are housed, the pockets being separated by alternate rows of posts. One commonly used tray of this type houses 30 eggs and includes six rows, each including five pockets. This type of tray is generally known as a 6.times.5 tray. Such trays are generally provided in stacks which during processing requires that a single tray be removed from the bottom of a stack of identical trays. Removal of a tray in this manner generally entails the grasping of the lowermost tray by means of a denesting finger which in turn pulls the tray away from the remainder of the stack. When the trays are snugly stacked upon one another, problems frequently occur during denesting, generally for any of two reasons. One involves the lack of a gripping ability by the denesting mechanism engaging the tray while the other occurs because the tray is too snugly stacked with respect to the adjacent tray. Failure to remove a tray causes mechanical jamming of the denesting apparatus necessitating either manual operator intervention or machine shut down. By the means disclosed herein, an egg tray is provided which may readily be removed from the remaining stack of trays without any denesting problems which would cause an interruption of service.